Like Pieces in a Jigsaw
by original beauty
Summary: Dana and Nick suffer repercussios from their breakup. Nick tries to find a way to make amends and gets in some sticky situations. Dana has a mysterious patient who is whisked away before she can question her.
1. Chapter I

The sky is dark and foreboding. Leaves skitter restlessly across the parking deck as Dr. Dana Stowe steps out of her car. It is a cold morning, the air hinting at snow to come. And sure enough, as Dana walks to the doors of the Rittenhouse Women's Health Center, the sky lets loose the first few perfect snowflakes. All of Philadelphia will be a winter wonderland by the end of the day.

Nick Biancavilla paces the lobby of RWHC nervously, alternately putting his hands in his pockets and crossing his arms. He is waiting for Dana to arrive so that he could ask for a consultation on one of his patients in the ER. Or rather, he had been waiting for an excuse to see her, and has finally found it. But now he isn't so sure it was a good idea. After all, it has been only a few days since he and Dana broke up. She had wanted to settle down, have children. Nick had thought that she was being rather selfish. Now he realized that he had been the selfish one, and regretted it with all his heart. He had given up the best thing he'd ever had.

Dana enters the clinic. "Morning, Lana. Any messages for me?"

Nick looks up, flustered. There she is. And to think she had been his not a week before. How could he have said no to her? What had he been thinking?

"Nope, but you've got Mrs. Henderson for 9:30, so you'd better hurry!" Lana answers.

"Thanks, Lana!" Dana grabbed Mrs. Henderson's chart, and starts walking towards Nick. She nods as she passes him, but keeps walking. Nick, shaken out of his reverie, holds up his chart, but it is too late. Her office door closes in his face. He turns around to find Lana looking curiously at him.

"Lookin' for somethin'?" Lana asks, a smirk on her face.

"Uh, no, just..." Nick trails off.

"Mm hmm?" Lana asks, adopting an innocent look.

"Well actually, I uh, wanted to consult Dana- er Dr. Stowe, but uh, you said she has a 9:30, so um...yeah. I'll get it later." Nick clears is throat, avoiding Lana's eyes. "Can you, um, have her give me a call...?

"Sure thing," Lana smirks again and turns back to her computer.

Dana sits down at her desk with a sigh. It is too early in the day to feel the way she's feeling. WHY did she and Nick have to work at the same hospital? It's so difficult. She knows that he had wanted to ask her something, but she had ignored him anyway. She wanted him to think that she didn't care, that she could live without him. That he was just another man to her.

'But maybe he wanted to talk...maybe apologize. Maybe he changed his mind!' A small voice in her head said. But no, Nick had said that he wasn't ready for a family. She couldn't expect him to change his mind just like that. But she missed him. Missed him so much that it hurt. She closed her eyes, took some deep breaths, and prepared herself for another day without him.


	2. Chapter II

Chapter II

Dr. Lu Delgado strolls down the hall, reading a chart and hurriedly trying to finish her lunch. As she arrives in the lobby of the clinic, she can see Lana standing by Dana's door. She is leaning slightly in, as if eavesdropping. Lu sneaks behind her, and says, "Boo!" Lana starts and purses her lips when she sees Lu.

"What did ya do that for? Gonna give Lana a heart attack one of these days, kid!"

Lu laughs,"Mm hm. Whatcha doin'?"

Lana shrugs, her face pouting a little," Nothin' much."

Lu laughs again and says, "Looks to me like you were..." she looks behind Lana's back at Dana's door and clears her throat,"...polishing Dana's doorknob, so to speak."

Lana gives up. "Yeah, well she and Dr. Biancavilla...well..ya know."

"Um, yeah I know that they broke up...but what does that have to do with..."Lu motions towards the door.

Lana leans forward. "Well," she says in the soft voice of someone confiding a secret," Dr. Biancavilla was down here this morning. Dr. Stowe came in, and went into her office without hardly giving him a glance. He just stood there and stared. I asked him if he needed anything, and he kinda jumped. Seemed all hot and bothered. And just now he came down to see her about something. I was just tryin' to get the scoop."

Just then Dana comes out of her office. Lu and Lana both look at her. Dana gives them a questioning glance. What are they looking at?

"Hello," she says brightly." They just look her up and down. She raises her eyebrows and keeps walking. What is _their_ problem?

Nick tries to catch up with her.

"Dana- Dana wait!"

She turns and looks him square in the eye."I think it would be better if we referred to each other professionally from now on," she pauses,"...Dr. Biancavilla."

"Fine. But I really did have a question for you. A _professional_ question." He is out of breath from running after her.

Dana ignores his sarcasm and turns and looks at him. She cannot believe that he had the gall to come down to her office and ask her about a case of chicken pox. Was he purposely trying to aggravate her? When he doesn't say anything, she gets impatient.

"Well? Are you or are you not going to tell me? I haven't got all day."

Nick looks at her for a moment, then responds, "You know, forget it. I'm sorry I wasted your time." He expects her to question him further, but she turns and walks away without looking back.

_Well, you screwed it up again, Nicky boy. Now she not only hates you, but thinks you are a complete dolt. Chicken pox? Where did that come from? Nice going, _he thinks to himself.

Back down in the RWHC, a teenage girl comes in. She hesitates, then walks up to the desk. She is wearing stylish clothes, and looks to be about fifteen. Lana looks up.

"Good morning, how may I help you?"

"Well...I need to see a doctor," the girl says in a small voice.

Lana softens, seeing that the girl is nervous, and says, "Are you sick?"

"Well...not exactly, no. I just need to get my ankle checked out. And...a pregnancy test," she finishes shamefacedly.

"Ok, well do you have insurance?"

"Yes." The girl hands Lana a card. Lana types her name and insurance information into her computer.

"Here you go, if you could just fill out the new patient paperwork, please, and give it to Dr. Stowe when she sees you," she hands the girl a chart.

"Thank you," the girl walks away and sits down in a chair in the corner of the lobby. She looks down at the forms in some perturbation. She carefully writes in her full name, Leia Celeste Parker, but leaves her parents' names blank. After only a few moments, she realizes that she is only able to fill out a third of the information needed- most of her personal information is left blank. She looks around for the receptionist, who had seemed very nice. She is talking to a doctor.

"Who do I have next, Lana?" Dana asks.

"Mm, next you have Leia Parker."

"Hmm she must be a new patient," Dana wrinkles her brow.

"Yep, and she seems a bit-" Lana saw Leia walking towards them. "That's her right there."

"Excuse me, ma'am, but I don't...I don't think that I can fill out all this information," Leia says to Lana. "I just don't know all of it," she hands the chart to Lana.

Just then, a man bursts in the door. He is fat, with a red face. He looks around for a moment, then his eyes settle on Leia.

"Leia you get right over here this instant! What do you think you're doing?" He crosses the room in a few big strides and takes Leia by the arm. Lana and Dr. Stowe are taken aback. They watch in shock as the man starts dragging Leia out.

"Wait! Uh, Miss...Parker? You- " Dana starts.

Leia tries to turn around," I'm sorry. I-I have to go!" And she is whisked out of the door by the man, who's deep bass rumble can be heard as soon as the door closes.


	3. Chapter III

Chapter III

"Hey let go of me!" Leia wrenches her arm out of Mr. Friedman's grip as they leave the clinic.

"Don't you talk to me like that, young lady!" Mr. Friedman takes her arm again, and shoves her into the backseat of his Camaro.

Leia rolls her eyes but says nothing.

"You've got a lot ot explaining to do. You can't just run off like that!"

Leia can't help it. "Yeah well maybe if I ever got a break, I wouldn't have to run off!"

Mr. Friedman looks at her furiously from the rear view mirror. "What were you doing there anyway? Is there something wrong with you?" His voice holds no concern, only anger and impatience.

"None of your business."

The car screeches to a halt on the side of the road. Mr. Friedman turns around, his eyes bulging, "You will tell me what the _hell _you were doing, or you will suffer some painful consequences."

At this remark, Leia's face changes from that of obstinance to one of absolute terror. Mr. Friedman nods in satisfaction.

"Now then. Spit it out, girl."

Leia closes her eyes, and says quietly, "I was just worried about my ankle is all."

Mr. Friedman thins his lips. "You're not telling the truth." Before Leia can say anything, he puts on the gas, and says, "Go straight to your room when we get home."

Tears roll down Leia's faceas she contemplates her fate_._

__Dana and Lana look at each other in confusion, trying to put together what had just happened.

Lu walks up and starts rummaging in a file cabinet. "Hey Lana where's Mrs. Pernanski's file?" When Lana doesn't answer, she looks up. "Hellooo anybody home?"

"What was that all about?" Dana asks Lana.

"Beats me," Lana shrugs, a bewildered expresion on her face.

Dana retreats back into her office with a disturbed look on her face. As if remembering something, she turns back to Lana,"Do you have her phone number?"

"Yeah I took it when she came in. Why?" Lana's look becomes concerned. "You ain't gonna call her are you?"

"I feel like maybe I should," Dana answers anxiously.

"After how mad her father seemed? Probably just make it worse."

"That's what worries me, Lana."


	4. Chapter V

Chapter V

_'Oh wow now you're being really dumb' _Nick says to himself. He is standing behind a dumpster outside Dana's office. He gingerly steps towards her window, coming out from shelter of the dumpster. Shielding his eyes, he tries to look through the narrow slit of the blinds. He sees Dana sitting at her desk. She has her head in her hands, and is rubbing her temples. After a moment, she picks up her phone, dials a number and waits. After a few moments of talking, she is broken off. Nick mashes his ear against the glass to try and make out what's happening, but it's no use. Dana looks horrified. After a moment she sets the phone back down. She looks very upset, and Nick is itching to run into her office and ask her what's wrong. To make everything better. He hates it when she's sad. He knows that any kind of knight-in-shining-armour gig that he might want to pull is a bad idea, so he resigns himself to watching. But he can't stand it- he can't watch her, helpless.

Dana sits at her desk quietly trying to decide what to do. She is seriously worried about Leia's situation. What kind of parents denied their child medical care? When she had called Leia's home, she had been angrily rebuffed. She wasn't sure whether or not to alert Child Protection Services or not. Her initial instinct was to alert them at once. But she knew that she couldn't be hasty in a case like this.

_'I just wish I could talk to her. See what she needs...' _She thinks, frustrated. She starts in surprise when there is a noise at her window. She gets up to investigate, drawing up the blinds. Nothing there.

'_Must have been a bird or something,'_ she thinks.

Nick jumps back away from the window just as Dana gets up. It was as if she had looked right at him. He scurries away, clearing his throat and hurumphing and looking around innocently.

Back inside Lana is relating the morning's events to Lu.

"And then this big old man just came in and swooped her up!" Lana exclaims.

Lu furrows her brow. "Did she go with him willingly?"

"I dunno, Lu, it happened so fast!"

They both look up as Nick comes in the door. Lana wrinkles her nose.

"P U what smells?"

Nick shoots her a vehement look.

"What? It smells like a...a dumpster in here," she sniffs the air. "Where have you been?" she asks Nick suspiciously.

"Out," he answers shortly and hurries away, leaving behind him a fresh wave of dumpster essence.

Lana and Lu look at each other and exchange raised eyebrows and grins.


	5. Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Mr. Friedman and Leia come to a screeching halt outside two big metal gates. Friedman barks a few commands into a microphone, and the gates swing open. The car lurches forward into a circular drive in front of a beautiful and stately white mansion.

Friedman pulls up in front of the house and gets out, leaving the car running for the valet. Leia follows him into the house, a hunched figure in the magnificient doorway. With her small and forlorn figure in its proud entrance, the house now looks cold and unwelcoming.

As soon as she is inside, Leia is accosted by a bony and harrassed looking woman. She sidesteps to avoid her, and runs up the grand staircase, again looking small and sad in the grandeur of the house. The womans verbal abuse follows her up to aroom, where she locks the door and runs into the walk-in closet. Folding herself in the many coats, she can hear her heartbeat and heavy breathing.

'_Madame Kent would be appalled at how winded I am from those stairs!_' she says dryly to herself.

But her moment of humor is cut short when she hears footsteps coming and Friedman's bellowing voice. She closes her eyes and pretends to be somewhere else. She just lets herself go...she's in another place, far away from the cold mansion, with all its anger and fear. Soon she is entranced- even when Friedman finally bursts into the little closet and yanks her up from beneath the protective coats, she doesn't make a sound.

Even when he hits her again and again, she makes no sound. Maybe if she did, he wouldn't hit so hard. She thinks this, but she is frozen, her body is limp. Finally, she is thrown into her room, and the door is slammed.

She smiles to herself as she thinks of how nice the carpet is- how soft and forgiving. She vaguely wonders how the fluffy white carpet has turned into this ugly, matted red. Something in her mind is screaming warnings, but she is oblivious. She lays on the carpet, blood cushioning her head, and there she falls asleep, the only rest for her tired body and mind.


	6. Chapter VII

Chapter VII

A few days after Leia came to the clinic, Dana still can't get it out of her mind. She has convinced herself that the right the thing to do is to alert CPS. However, just as she is sitting down to make the call, she gets a quite unexpected call from Leia.

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is Leia Parker, I came to see you a few days ago. I didn't get to actually get around to seeing you though."

"Oh hello, Leia! I'm so glad to hear from you! I was a bit worried from the way you were just whisked away!"

"Well one of the reasons I'm calling was to appologize for that. I feel horrible about it," Leia says contritely.

"Oh, please don't worry about it- things happen," Dana says kindly.

"I would really like to schedule another appointment, though."

"Well I'm sure Lana could set you up with something," Dana says brightly. When Leia doesn't say anything, she asks in an anxious tone," Is there a problem?"

"No, no, I'll set up a time with Lana. I just want to be sure that I can make it this time!" Leia answers in a superficially bright voice.

"Leia, is there a problem with your father not wanting you to come?" Dana asks seriously.

"My wh- oh, no, it's fine."

"Are you sure?" Dana wants to question her, but Leia is on her guard, and Dana wants the girl to trust her.

"Yes," Leia says firmly. "I'll make an appointment with Lana. Thanks Dr. Stowe!" And before Dana can say anything else, the dial tone has replaced Leia's voice.

Dana sighs and reluctantly hangs up the phone. She gets up slowly and walks into the lobby.

"Lana, can you let me know as soon as Leia Parker calls please?"

"Will do, Dr. Stowe."

Dana sniffs the air for a minute.

"Lana! What is that stench?"

"Why don't you go ask loverboy yourself?" Lana lowers her voice.

What?!" Dana exclims with a look of mingled fury and confusion.

Lana lowers her voice,"He's lurking behind those file cabinets watching you."

Dana sweeps around to where Lana is looking. And indeed, there is Nick. On the ground, nonethless. He looks up at her, then backdown at the floor. Dana puts her hands on her hips. She looks as if she's about to say something, but then she just turns right back around and stomps back into her office. But the look on her face when she looked at Nick was enough to make a grown man cry.

Nick quickly gets to his feet, and addresses the dozen or so people who witnessed the whole thing. "Hurumph...I just.." he clears his throat for what seems the millionth time that day. "Dropped my pen cap." When everyone keeps staring, he sighs, looks at the ground, and walks away, his face as red as a tomato.


End file.
